Knead My Breasts Like Dough
by StarPotterTwilightHunger
Summary: WOW! So long since I posted on this channel. I came up with this story as the opposite of Axes Grind and Bows Pierce My Heart (minus the infidelity). Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: 74th Reaping

**Chapter 1: 74th Reaping**

I wince at the pinprick of blood taken from me. As I go to stand with the other 16-year-olds, I try to encourage my 12-year-old sister that the Reaping doesn't hurt much. It depends on who you are and how long the pain lasts. It could be just for today, or for the next four days to a couple weeks.

Today is the Reaping for the 74th Annual Hunger Games - a yearly competition in which the 12 districts of Panem send one young man and woman into an outdoor arena to fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins and becomes a Victor to mentor future tributes.

Mayor Undersee starts by reading the Dark Days Speech that relates the need for the Games. Then he gives the names of Past District 12 Victors. In 73 years, we have had exactly two for my home. Both are still alive, heroes, but... well, you'll see.

"The Victor of the 16th Hunger Games: Cassiope Fletch!" A woman in her mid-70s waves to polite applause. She is of the earliest generation to experience the Games, probably had parents who rose up in the Rebellion. They say she was quite the beauty when she was younger, though she never married. Still, rumors persist that she Toasted the bread with a friendly Peacekeeper many years ago. An interesting choice, if proven true. Peacekeepers are from the Capitol, which controls the Games and our lives. Most are heartless; that Cassiope would take one as a husband is bold. As for me, I would never marry anyone, Capitol or Merchant or Seam.

"The Victor of the 50th Hunger Games or Second Quarter Quell: Haymitch Abernathy!" A drunk in his forties - just 40, actually, I think he is my mother's age - stands with a slurliness to salute the crowd laughing at him. He won an arena worth two, so I wonder if Haymitch disdains or even notices his neighbors' mockery.

Effie Trinket, our escort from the Capitol, now bounds onstage to make the selection: a name from one of each of the two Reaping Balls. "Ladies first!" The unfurling of the slip, and then: "Primrose Everdeen!"

I gawk. My baby sister was one tiny slip of paper in thousands! Her first year! As for me, my fourth year and with tesserae adding my name many times, I should have had a much higher chance of being picked. But Prim is now moving out of her place in line and I stumble after her, choking on her name. "Prim! Prim!" Peacekeepers move in to cut me off, so I yell the only thing that might stop them all: "I VOLUNTEER! I Volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

Volunteering allows me to replace my sister in the arena, or any female tribute Reaped if I so choose. But I don't think I've known of a Volunteer from District 12, as the Games have meant suicide to us save twice.

I shakily take the stage, but ignore Effie's attempts to milk the historic moment. She moves onto the boys: "Milne Headlamp!"

He's only twelve years old and a Merchant besides. I almost feel sorry for Milne as he joins me. No one under the age of fourteen has ever won the Games.

Milne and I shake hands and are guided into the Justice Building.

* * *

I am held prisoner in an immaculate room. Tributes are allowed visitors. But I only know of two who will visit me.

My mother and Prim burst in with my baby sister launching herself into my arms tearfully. "Just try to win, if you can!" She blubbers. Then she hands me the Mockingjay pin I gave her earlier that day. "To protect you." I peck her forehead.

Mother's and my conversation is less loving and more... correct. She has been detached since losing my father in a mining accident when I was eleven. At last, the Peacekeepers come and take my family away.

I don't expect anyone else to come. I have no other living family, and no friends of any consequence. I'm a pretty anti-social person myself. One might even say cold. Life has been so cruel to me, it is hard not to question even the kindness of others.

So it surprises me when the door opens again and I shrink back in amazement to see my third visitor.

"Peeta Mellark?"

The youngest of the Merchant baker's three sons, Peeta Mellark is a classmate of mine in school. He is a wrestler, though we don't know each other well at all. We only interacted once and it was years ago. But that encounter saved my life, which compels me to say, "Thank you for the bread." The bread tossed into a rainy street to save my starving family.

He chuckles, as if knowing what I am talking about. He suddenly takes my hand. "I couldn't bear not saying goodbye."

I stare up into his face. I find myself growing hot, and I gulp. "Why?" I all but whisper, even as I stare at him suspiciously.

He takes a deep breath, as if to gather his courage. "Because, Katniss Everdeen, I have been in love with you since I was five years old."

I stare in utter astonishment. Even if I had possessed any plans for romance, I am about as loving as a bump on a log to anyone but Prim. I splutter like a fish, mangling my own tongue as I try to find some kind of response. "Um... thank you?"

Peeta now pulls something out of his pocket, and I gasp, a hand to my mouth. "I've had this since I heard you sing that day in music assembly. When we turned 18 and survived our last Reaping, I was going to ask you to marry me."

That is the custom for most teenagers who are attached. But even if Peeta, a total Merchant stranger, had proposed to me, a Seam woman, I would have turned him down. For a variety of reasons. For one thing, marrying across class lines is still frowned upon. And even if I were to win the Games, most Victors refrain from marrying. Cassiope's marriage has never been confirmed, and Haymitch has not Toasted the bread with anyone, as far as I'm aware. And what woman would want to?

But Peeta seems sincere in his love. And despite not knowing him, he would be a worthy suitor, at least in my mother's eyes, if not quite in mine. He leads a worthy profession and is good with his hands. Kind. At least one spouse in most Twelve marriages is abusive, or so I've heard. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy now hands the ring to me. "Will you wear this for me? As your token?"

And even though I have my sister's pin, I tuck the engagement ring into the folds of my blue dress. Maybe I can get away with wearing both. "It's just as well you don't understand," I say, resting my forehead against his. "We are all damned," I whisper. "Although only some of us see it. It's a kind of salvation."

"But not you, Katniss. Never you." Peeta tells me. Is it just my imagination, or do I hear footsteps approaching? "The guards!"

I am suddenly afraid for him to leave me, so I impulsively shake my head and blurt out an order: "Kiss me."

Peeta hesitates for one moment, but then takes my in his arms and obeys my last command. He kisses my lips with his. And although I've never kissed a man before and am probably bad at it, I wound my arms tightly about the Baker's son, this boy who wished to be my husband, to make me his bride. Closing my eyes, I kiss him back. "Hmmm..."

I can feel what makes him a man growing and straining through his pants so that it presses into my skirt. I consider stroking him there to dull his ache for me. That he would be aroused by someone as plain as me is quite flattering. But I refrain and instead dare not refuse him when Peeta boldly feels me up. He caresses my ass, kneads my breasts like the dough he has handled all his life. I let him. He needs to know the feel of the woman he has loved from afar, as much as he needs to know her kiss. I pry open his mouth with my own and curl my tongue through the split and around his. I'm getting better at this... My hands sink into his blonde curls. And I feel his one hand playing with the brown locks of my braid, the other palm firmly about my waist. I brazenly hitch my leg to his hips and vaguely wonder if I have enough time to take him hear and now, give him some quickie, uncoordinated sex before...

The door opens. Peeta and I leap apart, scandalized. "Time's... up?" Darius frowns.

Neither Peeta nor I dare to kiss goodbye again in Darius's presence, so Peeta merely mouths 'I love you' to me as he backs out the door. I put a hand to my lips as soon as the door closes. What just happened?

I periodically check my kissed lips with my hand, as if to make sure it wasn't a bizarre dream, even after I have boarded the train for the Capitol. And for my death.

* * *

Cassiope and Haymitch are friendly enough. Well, Cassiope is; it takes Haymitch a few drinks to even be bothered to help us. Both give us good pointers, but I am drawn more to the old woman, as she has been mentoring for nearly sixty years.

The paparazzi are on Milne and I as soon as we step off the train. We spend an afternoon with our stylists getting primped and preened. I like mine, Cinna, right away, as he does not seem pretentious like many other Capitolites I have observed over the years either visiting District 12 or on TV.

Then, we are forced into our chariots for the Tribute Parade. It is very brief, followed by a speech from President Snow. Then we are taken to the Tribute Training Center, where we will live for the next four days.

Three of those days will be spent in training. Haymitch advises Milne and I to learn things we don't know and hide from the competition the skills we do. I do not shoot a single bow or set a single snare until my private session with the Gamemakers at the end of the three days. My session must impress them, for I get the highest score of the field; an 11! Which is very rare. No tribute in the history of the Games has ever gotten a perfect score of 12. Milne gets an 8.

The fourth and final day is preparation for our interviews with Caesar Flickerman. Cassiope coaches me, while Haymitch works on Milne. I am relieved - Cassiope is at least bearable, and though she's tough, she is not abusive like her only Victor colleague.

The interviews are that night. I go second to last, as ladies are first. Of course, Caesar asks me about my volunteering for my sister, as well as my great Training Score, and I dwell on both only as much as I have to for him and the audience to be pleased. For a moment, I fear he might surprise me with a question about the kiss Peeta and I shared in my holding cell before the train - I have always though the Justice Building would be bugged with hidden cameras, and a kiss between a tribute and a possible lover would be cause for gossip in the media. But Caesar does not let on that he knows anything. I have to assume he doesn't, although one can never be too careful. I dutifully pay attention to Milne's three minutes, and then the evening ends.

I go to bed that night scared shitless for the next morning. I hope that Mother and Prim will watch, but not too much.

And I startle myself when I hope that Peeta will be watching me, too.


	2. Chapter 2: Bloodbath

**Chapter 2: Bloodbath**

I try to hold down whatever I can eat at breakfast, as I am uncertain if I will ever get another meal again, never mind a decent one. Cassiope and Haymitch say goodbye to us on the roof of the Training Center, seeing us off on the hovercraft.

As soon as we get to the arena, we are hustled underground and I am separated from Milne. Cinna greets me, and I am overjoyed to see that he somehow managed to smuggle both Prim's pin and Peeta's ring into my possession. Most tributes are only allowed one token, and sometimes that is confiscated if it turns out the token could be used as a weapon/unfair advantage in the arena. But what could Prim's pin do? And Peeta's ring poses no danger. I hug my stylist goodbye and march bravely into the glass pod, which seals around me and pushes me up, up, up...

When my eyes squint past the sunlight, I can see that I am in a meadow, surrounded by foresty trees. The Cornucopia is in the center of the meadow.

The countdown begins almost immediately. I hone in on a bow several yards ahead of me, and when the gong sounds after the minute tributes are given to collect themselves, I launch myself for it. I manage to seize it, a backpack and hightail it out of there without receiving so much as a scratch.

As I proceed through the trees throughout the day, I can hear cannons periodically going off, signaling the death of another tribute. I don't bother to count them; the sky will tell me everything I need to know tonight. Indeed, the first day passes quickly and before I know it, I am burrowing myself in a tree for the night, as the faces of the dead appear in the sky.

There are fourteen of them before the faces run out. The living are both from 1 and 2. The boy from 3. The girl from 5. The boy from 10 with the bad leg. Both from 11. And me. That's it.

I don't give myself time to mourn Milne; his death was predictable on his age alone. There may be only a few others who are dead wood who will fall soon, and then the Final Eight will be reached and things will start to get really interesting. I nestle into my tree for the night and go to sleep. Oddly, it is Peeta's face I see before drifting off.

* * *

I wake up to the sound of victorious laughing from down below. When I get a good look, my heart plummets into my stomach:

The Careers - all four of them! - have found the tree I spent the night in and a circling it like a pack of rabid wolves.

The boy from District 2 and the leader, Cato, tries to climb up after me, but the branches won't hold his weight. The girl from 1, Glimmer (who is a blonde ditz), tries to shoot me with a bow of her own, but I can tell from the way she holds it that she doesn't know how to use it. At a loss for what to do, the quartet decide to take a nap at their camp just below my tree, and wait me out.

I spend the brief reprieve trying to find an escape route. With an assist from the little girl from District 11 hiding in the trees, I finally find one. Discovering a knife in my backpack, I cut a nest of tracker jackers free from its branch, and drop the thing on the Careers. Maybe I can make a hole in one, and take out the entire pack unawares.

I don't succeed at this. All but Glimmer make a successful escape to a lake that's apparently back near the Cornucopia. But the results are good enough, as I make my getaway and steal the bow off Glimmer's corpse in the bargain.

The only downside? The tracker jackers sting me enough to knock me unconscious.


	3. Chapter 3: Level the Field

**Chapter 3: Level the Field**

I wake up next to a makeshift campfire, and find that once again, Rue (the little girl from District 11) is once again my savior. She got rid of the stings by pasting my skin with leaves. She also gives me some very valuable intelligence: that the Careers have returned to the Cornucopia, taken over the entire supply stash and hired the boys from 3 and 10 to replace Glimmer's loss. Together, she and I come up with a plan to level the playing field, by luring the Careers away from their camp to spy on it, and also to hopefully do something about those supplies...

Rue crafts several bonfires that do the job of luring Cato and the others away. I spy on the camp, which is only guarded by the two weaker boys.

All at once, I spy the girl from 5 hop in a very methodical way towards the pile and steal one backpack from it before taking off. Now, why wouldn't she just walk up to the pile? Why go through such an interpretive dance almost? Unless...

"It's mined," I breathe. Likely with the bombs that I know are under the tribute pedestals, to keep us from moving before the first minute is up. I know what I have to do, Lining up a shot, I take aim at a bag of apples and let fly.

KABOOM! The entire pile explodes and throws me back into the trees. When I come to, I can see the two guards lying dead, and Cato sprinting back towards the obliterated stash in a rage.

I take off running through the trees, knowing we are well past the Final Eight now. I only sprint faster when I hear Rue's screams for help. I have barely freed her from a net when Marvel, the clueless wonder from 1, appears out of nowhere and launches a spear. I shoot him dead, but she spear gets Rue. I hold her hand and sing her to sleep, to death.

Four more gone. Add Glimmer, and... there are only five of us left. Already. District 2. Foxface. Thresh, the boy from 11. And me.


	4. Chapter 4: Captured by the Enemy

**Chapter 4: Captured by the Enemy**

I would have thought that nineteen deaths over two days would have pleased the Capitol audiences enough with bloodshed.

Apparently, I am wrong, as on Day 3, Claudius Templesmith announces a Feast. "Each of you needs something - desperately," he rationalizes.

I have no idea what I could possibly need desperately, so I decide to go and observe.

At high noon, that same day at the Cornucopia, a table rises out of the ground containing four backpacks with a district number: 2, 5, 11 and 12. I know that I won't have to compete with long-dead Milne for mine.

But that doesn't mean I won't have to fight for it with someone else.

So I make a run for it, and have barely gotten a hand on the backpack strap when Clove, the little knife-throwing girl from 2, attacks me. She nearly kills me, distracted only to chuck a knife into Foxface's back as the latter tries to use the distraction to get away. BOOM. Another cannon.

But the about-face, however brief, costs Clove, as she is suddenly thrown off of me and beaten to death by Thresh, with a rock. He picks up his backpack, but leaves me alone, pointing at me and saying, "Just this time, Twelve! For Rue."

I have no idea how he knows how I helped Rue, but I don't have time to ponder this. For as I'm getting up, I feel a blade press into my back.

"You scream, you die," a voice hisses. A hand clamps over my mouth and I have no choice but to be dragged away by Cato.

I am no longer just a prisoner of the Games. I am the prisoner of a fellow tribute.


	5. Chapter 5: Blonde Beast

**Chapter 5: Blonde Beast**

I don't remember when in our retreat back into the woods that I was knocked out. Only that I now wake up beside the blaze of a campfire for the second time in this ordeal. It is night, by how bright the fire glows, as Cato cooks a small meal over it. Seeing I am awake, he strides over with a broadsword in hand.

"I am going to ask you one question, Fire Girl: how did you get that score in Training?" He seems almost obsessed by the way he asks the question. Almost deranged. I smirk.

"That's what you're concerned about, little boy? Awwww... did I hurt poor Cato's feelings?"

"SHUT UP!" and he flings me back into the trunk of a tree. The tree I now discovered I am tied to, like a stone hog. "I want you dead, Girl on Fire. But I thought I would have a little fun with you first."

I gulp. I have no idea what he means. I mean, I have an idea, but I don't want to contemplate that right now. Cato now suddenly begins to monologue, almost bear his soul to me, and for the first time, I can understand the pain it must actually be to be a Career. I always thought Careers were brute killing machines without a lot of brains. But Cato seems different. A tactician to the end.

"I have to win, girl. Bring pride to my district. And you're in the way."

Yes, I am in the way. Thresh and I are the only threats to Cato's crown. He could kill me right now and I would get a bronze medal for District 12, as is the custom.

"And why would you want to win for a hole like District 12 anyway?" he asks.

I gulp again, unsure if I should divulge any information. "For my sister."

"The one you volunteered for?"

I nod.

"And... we have only ever had two Victors ourselves," I admit. "We haven't won since the last Quell."

Cato nods again in the firelight. He peers at me curiously, as if he can't quite believe I am real. As if I am an enigma he is trying to figure out. Then, he startles me by promptly rolling over and going to sleep. I drift off too, but for a while I manage to keep one eye open.

Afraid that he might kill me during the night.


	6. Chapter 6: The Victor

**Chapter 6: The Victor**

I dream of Peeta that night. I actually dream of winning, returning home to him, wearing my mother's white bridal dress (the nicest article of clothing we own), and kissing him.

And as I am pulled from the dream, I realize I am kissing someone with blonde hair and blue eyes. But it isn't Peeta.

It's Cato.

"MMMMM!" I scream with indignation into his mouth. But Cato mounts me quickly, pinning me to the earth and the tree. No matter how much I kick and scream and try to throw him off, he strips me of my clothing before dropping everything he wears from the waist down.

I feel something deep with my core break, tear, and my eyes fill with tears at the pain. I never wanted to have sex with any man, and now it is being forced on me by a Career! I should have known Cato lusted after me as part of his obsession!

Cato bounces on me up and down, thrusting into my body faster and faster, and with great violence. At last, he shudders enormously and ejaculates within me. I refuse to come for him, though, even if the juices in my core are building. I will not orgasm for this monster. I will not!

And thankfully, I never get the chance.

With a roar, a black something yanks Cato off of me. I hear punches being thrown, growls and screams and then one painful wail from Cato. A cannon. BOOM.

I can't believe it. Cato's dead! I can see that as I remove myself from the tree, where my ropes were loosened in the confusion of the rape and later fight. Thresh is kneeling before his fallen rival in the firelight. Winded.

I waste no time. With his back to me, I seize my bow and shoot the black boy through. It seems like an awful way to say thank you for saving my life - again! But I have to win! And I can't do that in a hand-to-hand duel with Thresh.

After Thresh's cannon is heard, Claudius Templesmith announces my Victory: "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 74th Annual Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen of District 12!"

I won. I am going home - the third Victor for my district.


	7. Chapter 7: I Will Marry You

**Chapter 7: I Will Marry You**

I have my final interview with Caesar and have the Victory Crown placed on my head. Then I go home with Cassiope and Haymitch.

On the train ride back, I finger Peeta's engagement ring over in my hand. During my interview, I had to watch a whole re-cap of my Games, including the rape from Cato. It made me feel dirty, almost like I had been unfaithful, somehow.

And with this, I know what my decision should be for the rest of my life, despite Cassiope's warning me of the Victor's Code that prevents attachments from Victors. After all, the rumors are she broke the Code herself when she got married. Why should I follow it and sacrifice some of my happiness?

So, as soon as we get off the train, I find Peeta in the crowd. Pulling him to me, I dip him and crush my lips against his in a heated kiss. There are gasps and then cheers, but I ignore them all as Peeta finally gets his wits about him and kisses me back.

"Do you still want to marry me?" I whisper in his ear when we break apart.

"Yes."

I kiss him again chastely. "Then let's do it."

* * *

We perform the Toasting ceremony in the dead of night, in Victors' Village. The only ones who know are the Mellarks, Mother, Primrose, Cassiope and Haymitch.

Cassiope takes me inside her house before the ceremony and presents me with a gift: "This bridal gown is the one I got married in."

I gasp. It's stunningly beautiful - befitting a Victor. "So the rumors are true."

She gives me a mischievous grin. "Yes."

"Who is he?"

"That's for me to know, and you to work out on your own."

Peeta and I toast the bread in front of my new mansion's fireplace. And then we seal it all with a kiss. No one in Twelve feels truly married until after a Toasting.

Peeta then takes me up yo my bed and makes love to me. His hands are everywhere, and I moan when he takes my nipples into his mouth. He thrusts into me much more gently than Cato did, and I hold his sweating body close until he orgasms inside of me. And for the first time, I cum for a man. My new husband. We fall asleep in each other's arms.


	8. Chapter 8: Torn from My Husband?

**Chapter 8: Torn from My Husband**

"On the 75th anniversary, as a reminder that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes are to be Reaped from their existing pool of Victors."

Haymitch gives a roar of anger and Cassiope begins to cry. I run from my mentor's house and burst into tears in the center of the Village. I know why this Quarter Quell twist has happened. On my Victory Tour, I saw the desperate anger behind the people's eyes. There is a Rebellion growing, and Snow wants to destroy the Victors - a hope for that rebellion. Because we escaped the arena and slipped the noose of poverty that strangles the rest of the people. And now, my only hope to not go back in is a woman who has not seen the inside of an arena in nearly six decades - Cassiope Fletch.

I can't let her die. But I don't want to leave my husband of not quite a year either. Oh, there is no hope!

But Peeta does not despair. He takes it upon himself to give Cassiope, Haymitch and I a Career's training regiment. I kiss him whenever I get the chance because I know he is only doing this to support me, his wife. We learn new skills and watch old tapes of the Games.

The night before the Reaping, Peeta and I make passionate love in our bed. And as we lie awake in each other's naked embrace, I confess to him, "Peeta... I wanted to have your baby."


	9. Chapter 9: 75th Reaping

**Chapter 9: 75th Reaping**

The day of the Reaping dawns hot and sultry. Haymitch, the Victor of the last Quell, is predictably Reaped to defend his title. I am Reaped, too, but Cassiope bravely volunteers for me. As I wait for them to board the train, I catch a glimpse of a Peacekeeper opening the door to Cassiope's cell to find her kissing an elderly Peacekeeper. I know the official's son - redheaded Darius. Huh. I wonder if this man is the Victor's secret husband.

Now I have to mentor my two mentors when this is my very first year given such a task. For an arena full of Cassiope and Haymitch's old friends.

After the stylists and the Parade, my mentors go in to train over the course of three days. When they come out of sharpening their own skills after decades of not having to do so, they make Hunger Games history, each pulling perfect scores of 12.

The interviews are even more shattering, as the Victors who will go back in criticize the Quell in subtle, clever ways - their own sign of Rebellion. Haymitch lights the fuse on the bomb the Victors have been building by announcing I am pregnant with Peeta's child. Even though I am safe to return to my husband's arms, the Capitol still shrieks and cries that their own Games be stopped. The Victors join hands in a dangerous display of solidarity before the feed is cut off.


	10. Chapter 10: Named for You

**Chapter 10: Named for You**

It pains me to say goodbye to the two people who saved my life the next morning. But I do and promise to give Peeta their love.

Cassiope and Haymitch put up an incredible fight, placing in the Top Three with medals before both fall in a brave last stand to the woman who becomes Victor, Johanna Mason of District 7. But she helps to lead the rebellion on. Soon, the Hunger Games are destroyed, and Panem's authoritarian regime falls. We become a democracy, and I return home to my husband in District 12.

* * *

And have his babies. Two children, whom we name Cassiope and Haymitch, after my fallen mentors. As they play in the Meadow, I watch my little family that I never thought I'd have and think of all the good things I've seen someone do. It's a tedious game, I know, but there are much worse Games to play.


End file.
